


The Last Thing I Want

by peachmuffins



Series: They Would Be Okay [2]
Category: The Stanley Parable
Genre: "Enemies" to friends, Gen, Human Narrator, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Major canon divergence, Mute Stanley (The Stanley Parable), Roses, Swearing, angst to sort of fluff, asdfgrthr, big gay disease strikes again, but again they aren't really enemies, but he's not really human i guess, couldnt me me pff, how do you write for stanley and the narrator asfdg help, i don't really care because i wanted smth cute, i love this game, imagine writing rose meanings into a literal lightshow, is there actually swearing i dont remember oopsss, is this ooc? quite a bit more than my last one however, narrator remembers resets, pt. 2, stanley remembers resets, they still need each other, this one is slightly less platonic lmao, umm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27245347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachmuffins/pseuds/peachmuffins
Summary: Stanley's nightmare leads both him and the Narrator into different realizations.
Relationships: The Narrator & Stanley (The Stanley Parable), The Narrator/Stanley (The Stanley Parable)
Series: They Would Be Okay [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1989232
Comments: 3
Kudos: 55





	The Last Thing I Want

**Author's Note:**

> Oh wow it's me again! Haha I really enjoy writing for these two idiots. Anyways this one is significantly shorter than the last one but also I don't like this one nearly as much as I do the other one. I also feel this one is slightly more OOC and angst-for-the-sake-of-angst" but I just needed to write this to satisfy my addiction to putting angst in every fanfic I write... Anyways this is a continuation off of my last fic in this series however I did leave that at a closed point which is why I kind of didn't write this one great afsgfds-- We all make mistakes and this is just one of my many.
> 
> However, despite the mistakes I have made while writing this atrocity... I hope you enjoy reading!
> 
> [[[TW !!! Panic Attack (sort of?)]]]

_“Oh, Stanley.” The man’s gaze flickered around the room as he looked for something,_ _anything_ _that he could use to his advantage right now. The buttons around the room didn’t do anything and he was running out of time. “This isn’t the first time you’ve done this and you still don’t know that you can’t do anything.” Stanley had no idea what the Narrator was talking about. This wasn’t the first time Stanley had done this? What did he mean? Of course Stanley remembered the resets after the endings but there was no memory of this happening. Maybe another ending had caused his memories of the office to be completely wiped along with the world? Or maybe the Narrator was just bluffing…? He didn’t know and he didn’t have time to think about it now. “Why would you think that, Stanley? That this video game can be beaten, won, solved? Do you have any idea what your purpose in this place is?” The Narrator laughed cruelly, making Stanley flinch. He had never laughed like that before. “Stanley… you're in for quite a disappointment.” The only thought that Stanley had was_ _fix this and get out._ _However, as much as he tried, that wasn’t going to happen. Somewhere deep down he knew that._

_“Narrator, please. I don’t want to die like this.” Stanley signed, begging for the Narrator to have a change of heart. Of course they had been at each other’s throats this whole time but it’s not like Stanley didn’t care about the Narrator. And-And he knew the Narrator cared about him! So he just prayed. Begged that their small connection in this endless loop of resets would fix all of this. There was a soft sigh and some words mumbled that Stanley couldn’t make out and for a moment, he thought he had done it. Then the Narrator scoffed._

_“You’ve had your chance, Stanley. I'm going to watch you be blown to pieces and I’m going to enjoy it. You want to control my world,_ _my_ _story? Well, we’ll see who’s really in control here.” Stanley couldn’t even form coherent thoughts anymore. He was panicking, trying to think of something to do to save himself. Was there a way he could cause a game restart on his own? He didn’t think so. “Make it count, Stanley. Or don’t. Whether you do or not doesn’t really matter to me. It’ll all just start over again anyways.” Only a few seconds were left. This was it then. “Goodbye, Stanley--” And then all he felt was pain._

* * *

Stanley opened his eyes and blinked a few times, his lungs feeling like they were burning. When had he fallen asleep? He didn’t even know that he could sleep, if he was being honest. He glanced to his left and flinched when he saw how close he was to another person he didn’t recognize at first. _There are other people in the parable?_ He was disoriented and for a moment he didn’t remember where he was. His breathing was ragged. Then he felt pressure on his hand. Why was there another hand resting on his hand? It must have been the man beside him. Who…? Oh. Right. Narrator. That’s who. Stanley gulped and tried to stop the tears that had flooded his vision from falling. The person who had killed him and enjoyed every painful second of it.

“Such a shame that we have to restart soon.” The Narrator sighed softly, shifting so he could see Stanley out of the corner of his eye better. His expression shifted to fear when he saw how Stanley looked. “Stanley?” Not long ago, Stanley had been looking over at Narrator with admiration; he had looked at him with what could almost be called love (platonic love, Stanley would insist) as the two of them sat in the beautiful room that Narrator had created just for them to be happy together. Now… Now Stanley was looking at him in fear. He was afraid. Afraid for his life, afraid of why he had ever trusted this being in the first place. Afraid of what would happen when the Narrator got bored again. When Stanley _himself_ got bored again.

 _“Fine.”_ Stanley signed, pushing himself away from the Narrator and (not so gently) ripping his other hand away and bringing it to his side. The Narrator’s brow furrowed and he pushed up his glasses, watching Stanley’s shaking form with concern. The change between emotions was so sudden. Had he done something wrong?

“You don’t look fine.” He paused, clasping his hands together and fidgeting with them slightly. “Did you have a nightmare, Stanley?” Stanley’s breathing didn’t slow and he didn’t know if he could even move his hands anymore. Luckily, after a few long seconds of spacing out, he had managed to blink his tears away so he could see properly but he was still shaking too much for comfort. He nodded at the Narrator’s question with a distrusting look, the nightmare… the _memory_ still consuming his thoughts no matter where he looked. The Narrator had done that to him and seemingly felt no remorse at the time. How could he have forgotten? How could he have _forgiven him?_

“What was it about? The um, the nightmare.” Stanley took a moment to answer again, this time a little bit of remorse mixing in with the other emotions. Stanley ignored it. He pointed to the Narrator, which was followed by a sudden but extremely subtle shocked expression from the Narrator himself. “Oh, I see…” His voice wobbled slightly and Stanley felt bad now that his mind was less foggy from sleep. Sudden regret overtook anything he had been feeling before. The two of them had clearly bonded over whatever this last run through had been, even if only a little… and the memory Stanley had re-lived was one of the first restarts he could really remember looking back. That was earlier in their relationship (at least the parts that they could remember) and after that, Stanley had stuck to the more passive endings just so he didn’t have to go through something like that again. It was ages ago, irrelevant now. Perhaps Stanley was just overreacting. It was a distant memory and at this point just a nightmare. Like the Narrator had said before. He could just brush it off and move on… 

“What exactly was I doing in the nightmare, Stanley? If-If you don’t mind me asking, of course.” The Narrator’s voice snapped Stanley out of his thoughts and he looked up. As he was thinking he had managed to ground himself, but the question made panic shoot through his whole body all over again. _He doesn’t need to know. It’s just going to hurt him and I don’t want that right now,_ was one of the things Stanley thought. The other thing he was saying to himself was, _He deserves it. What he did left its mark._ Obviously he knew that wasn’t the case but everyone knows that it’s hard to stop those thoughts from appearing. He didn’t want to hurt the Narrator, who had clearly grown and was _very_ clearly hurting just as much as Stanley was. That didn’t excuse past actions, however… _Shut up._ Stanley was tired of hearing himself think.

 _“Bomb ending.”_ Stanley signed, finally able to move his hands by his own volition. He decided just to leave it at that, satisfying both sides of his thinking as best he could. The Narrator’s face fell even further, if that was possible. He took his glasses off and set them aside, running his hands down his face. Of course he had to ruin this moment with Stanley. He always did, didn’t he? One way or another, he always manages to ruin Stanley’s life. All because of some stupid script that he was forced to read. He really did get too into the role… not like he had a choice.

“That was the worst one. Watching you panic and scramble for a solution to an unfixable problem filled me with happiness and… and I hate it.” There was a long pause as the Narrator let his face be covered by his hands. His voice was slightly muffled when he spoke next. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, Stanley. I don’t even know why I’m here.” He shook his head and grabbed his glasses, standing up. The peaceful moment they had shared only about an hour ago (if time even mattered there anymore) was long gone now.

 _“I’m fine, Narrator.”_ Stanley tried his best to snuff the rising panic he felt at watching this play out. He wasn’t afraid for himself, he was afraid for the Narrator. Their relationship had just gotten better and Narrator was about to leave? Because of a dumb dream Stanley had about something that had happened a long, long time ago? _Why do I even care if he leaves?_

“Stanley, you having a bloody panic attack is not ‘fine’.” The Narrator’s tone was laced with venom (and a much heavier accent than normal), but Stanley could hear the concern behind it and tried not to let it get to him too much. “God, I shouldn’t have listened to you when you said to come down here.” Stanley blinked, not really sure what to do. What was he _supposed_ to do? “I’m leaving, Stanley. And-And I’m not ever going to come back down because it only brings back bad memories for you. Just… pretend this never happened.” Stanley suddenly realized what was happening. “Pretend I never went off script. It’d be better for both of us.” It hurt more than he’d like to admit. He was going to lose the first person he had talked to in what very well could have been years. The first person he could really, _truly_ give the title “friend” to since… well, even since before he was in the parable.

 _“Please don’t go.”_ Stanley stood up too, signing frantically as he did so. The Narrator wasn’t even looking at Stanley but he still seemed to see what the man was saying. Those were the benefits of being semi-omniscient and previously just a literal voice coming from the ceiling of the office, Stanley would guess.

“No, Stanley. I’m doing this for you. You would want this anyways, you’re just not in the right state of mind after that nightmare of yours. Rightfully so, I suppose.” The Narrator started to walk away, hesitating at first before he did. He looked back at Stanley and the office worker could have sworn that he saw tears forming before the Narrator turned away again. Stanley acted quickly, grabbing the Narrator’s sleeve and spinning him around. Even the normal ambient music in the room had died out and it was the most silent Stanley had ever heard it, even compared to when he had left the Narrator in the boss’s office. The Narrator scanned Stanley’s face with fear and genuine pain shining in his multicolored eyes.

Stanley slowly let go of the Narrator’s sleeve. _“Don’t say what you think I want!”_ The Narrator genuinely didn’t know what to say. He was at a loss, which didn’t happen often for him. Next Stanley said carefully, making sure there were no mistakes or places where he could be misinterpreted, _“You leaving is the last thing I would ever want.”_ And then it wasn’t silent anymore. The room’s colored lights brightened, their shapes shifting to look a little like roses and other flowers. Crimson reds and warm pinks lit up the room in a wonderful, beautiful combination. They mixed with small blobs of lavender and coral, along with even a little orange. The oddest colors Stanley had ever seen in a lightshow all together, but somehow they worked well. It almost looked like a garden, in a way (considering the rose shaped blobs of light, maybe that was the point). Perhaps they even had meanings to them, but that didn’t matter now.

“I… really?” The Narrator asked, his voice soft. His face flushed slightly, although it went unseen due to the lighting of the room. “Oh, but Stanley, I’ve done so many awful things to you and I don’t deserve to just _be forgiven_.”

 _“Maybe you’re right about the awful things.”_ Stanley agreed, stopping to think for a second. _“But that doesn’t mean I can’t forgive you, or that we can’t work through it together.”_ Of course, things weren’t wrapped up in a neat little bow like Stanley had wanted them to be. He had gone through a lot with the Narrator, some good and quite a bit of bad, and unfortunately the bad wasn’t really something that you could fix with wholesome apologies, a room full of pretty lights and staring ~~lovingly?~~ at each other. But it sure was a start, and leaving definitely wouldn’t have helped the two of them. It wouldn’t have fixed anything. Now that they had addressed the things they had done and forgiven each other, maybe they could really start working together to fix things. Or make better endings. Get to know each other better. Maybe even get out of here one day. _“I do forgive you, Narrator. These things happened ages ago and you’ve grown. I can see that.”_

“I…” The Narrator took a breath. “Thank you, Stanley. It means a lot.” If there’s one thing about Stanley, he knows when people are being genuine. He’s great at reading people’s emotions like books. And he could tell that the Narrator meant every word he was saying. _We’ve been here for a long time. Maybe we could try a better route, once we reset and get out of here._ “Are you ready to reset, Stanley?” It was almost as if the Narrator had read Stanley’s mind… that was his job though, wasn’t it? Being a Narrator for Stanley’s thoughts. Knowing exactly what Stanley was going to say before he would say it. Before he would even think it, sometimes.

 _“Am I ever?”_ Stanley took the Narrator’s hand after saying what he needed to say, a grin on his face, and he closed his eyes. Ready to start his story, _their story,_ all over again. It was their story. And it was just getting started.

“Stanley closed his eyes and waited for his Narrator to manually restart the game to avoid the bad ending, knowing that together they could get through whatever they had to. Maybe one day they would really be-- Oh my _God,_ Stanley this is so cheesy I can barely say any of it.” But there was a smile in his voice though and Stanley couldn’t help but note how the Narrator had said “ _his_ Narrator” instead of “ _the_ Narrator”. Maybe this time they really would be okay. Not without their ups and downs… but okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Ooh. More Stanley Parable content from Peachy? :O Yessir.
> 
> Also did you guys like the rose symbolization in the lights? Please appreciate it,,, i have no idea what im doing-
> 
> No okay but seriously I've had writer's block for literally so long now and it doesn't help that I've consumed every TSP related video or fanfic in a ten mile radius-- I am burned out asdfgsd
> 
> Once again, sorry if it's a bit OOC because it's still hard to write for these two oops. I wrote the first few bits a week or two ago, and I just speedran the last 1000+ words from like,,, 7:45am to now which is 8:40am. It's so fun guys (/s). Anyways sorry it's so short! I tried really hard to make it longer and in character but my brain is absolutely fried. Despite all the mistakes and weirdness of this story... I hope you enjoyed reading this! If you liked this, you could hypothetically subscribe to me and stick around for more of my writing, since unsubscribing is always free- Haha kidding. All I ask is that you don't be rude to me if you don't like this lol.
> 
> Have a good day/night and take care of yourself! <333


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